Ronlald Reagan: “You and I are told increasingly we have to choose between a left or right. Well I’d like to suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There’s only an up or down—[up] man’s old—old-aged dream, the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order, or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism. And regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course.”
Like I said earlier, and I mean what I say, I applaud Marine Le Pen’s views on Qatar and the Saudis, but I also condemn her views on appeasing the genocidal maniacs of the Iranian regime. This goes to show the problem in understanding and dealing political parties of Europe, it’s a literal mine field.
That said, I’ll take the lot of them (the parties mentioned favorably in Pipe’s article) in comparison to the nut-job parties currently running the majority of nations here, let alone in the halls of Brussels.
In Defense of Europe’s So-called Far Right
by Daniel Pipes
The Washington Times
January 19, 2015
Sunday a week ago, the French government sponsored a solidarity rally featuring an array of foreign leaders and all domestic political parties joining together in a “sacred union” (a term recalling World War I) against the massacres at Charlie Hebdo magazine and the kosher market.
Make that all the political parties except one — the National Front (NF) headed by Marine Le Pen, ostensibly excluded because it does not subscribe to “republican values.” In reality, it was barred because, uniquely among French political parties, it opposes immigration; and other politicians fear that the NF gains in the aftermath of the massacres. Likewise, the government yesterday forbade a demonstration by the secularist Riposte Laïque organization that called for “Islamists out.” .
 The Paris attacks got Marine le Pen invited to the meet the French president but not to march in his parade. |
Although myself a classical liberal with libertarian tendencies, in the center of the Republican party in the United States, I welcome the strengthening of the National Front and many of the other parties vilified as being on the “far right.” Here is why:
Granted, some European parties actually have a fascistic quality, in particular Golden Dawn in Greece and Jobbik in Hungary. But the others being maligned are in fact populist and insurgent, often with leftist economic programs, especially concerning the welfare state. They are creatively centrist, forming a novel combination that draws on right and left in both their policies and their supporters. They represent the healthy, normal, legitimate, and constructive response of a people under stress. Moreover, they address what’s on many minds.
 Some Greeks express themselves about the other populist concern: the European Union. |
For example, in the case of the latest atrocities, Le Pen was, as usual, the only French leader boldly to come out and identify their cause: “We are fighting an ideology, that of Islamist fundamentalism.” In contrast, President François Hollande blatantly lied: “Those who committed these acts, these fanatics, have nothing to do with the Muslim faith.” (His prime minister, Manuel Valls, did a bit better: “We make war … against radical Islam.”)
In addition to the NF in France, similar parties include the United Kingdom Independence Party, the Swiss People’s Party, the Freedom Party of Austria, Alternative for Germany, the Danish People’s Party, the Progress Party (Norway), the Sweden Democrats, the Finns Party, and – leading the pack – the Party for Freedom (Netherlands), founded by Geert Wilders, whom I consider to be Europe’s most important politician.
 PEGIDA has organized large demonstrations in Germany, especially in Dresden. |
